Master Gardener: What to do in the winter garden

On warm days clear the weeds from any beds not already planted with winter vegetables. If you cover the beds with newspaper held down by rocks, they’ll be weed-free to accept plants in the spring.

Remove weeds like crab grass if they’re crowding trees, vines or berries. Again, newspaper covered with mulch will help control unwanted growth around tree trunks.

Clean, flush and repair your drip system. Remove and discard any batteries. Hopefully, you did this before the freeze but if not this is the time to do it before it is needed in the spring.

Remember to water citrus, especially young trees, during winter droughts. Because they’re evergreens, they continue to respire throughout the winter.

For frost control, string old-fashioned incandescent Christmas lights (LED lights give off no heat) on your citrus. If the temperature threatens to drop into the mid-20s or below and stay there for more than a day, surround your trees with old sheets held on with clothespins: they’ll help hold in the heat from the Christmas lights.

Dormant spray fruit trees with horticultural oil and fixed copper to help control overwintering insects and peach leaf curl. Repeat at least once. Coverage in February is most important, right before bud break. Clean and oil your hand tools and maintain power tools so they’ll be ready when you need them.

Prune peaches and nectarines (fruit forms on last year’s new wood) and anything you want to put on new growth. Wait until mid-summer to prune fruit trees whose size you want to control.

Enrich your soil with compost, peat moss, etc. Our hot summers bake organic matter out of the soil quickly, and you need to replace it at least twice a year. You’re encouraging the many soil organisms that will renew your soil for spring.

This is also a good time to start new vegetable gardens: lay down as much compost as you can, cover it with cardboard or black plastic held down with rocks.

Turn your compost pile once a month, to help it work faster.

Prune dead runners from your blackberry and raspberry vines.

Remove weak plants from your strawberry beds, if they’re everbearers. If they’re spring bearers, mow them with the blade set fairly high; the strongest will survive. Replace every three years with new starts — not runners.

Deadhead ornamentals by running the mower over the removed stalks and add them to your compost.

Winter’s the time to plant new bulbs or move old ones. Remember, spring here can begin in February.

This is also the time of year to plant new trees and shrubs. Go bare root if you can.

If you garden in open ground, plant a cover crop, perhaps a nitrogen-fixer such as peas or crimson clover, to be spaded in four to five weeks before summer planting.

Start seeds of tomatoes indoors in mid-February, and other warm weather vegetable seeds in March, for setting out in April or later, after frost danger has passed. Order seeds from catalogs if they’re not available locally.